An Announcement for Public Awareness

Anyone who has seen copies of Sheikh Muhammad Husain Batalawi’s magazine Isha‘atus-Sunnah, listened to his sermons, or read his letters, can testify to the kind of language that he has used with regard to my humble self, and can see how his words are full of egotism and arrogance. While he calls me a liar and an impostor, he himself claims to be an eminent maulawi. He says that I am completely ignorant and do not have any knowledge of Arabic. Perhaps, all this nonsense is intended at influencing people to acknowledge Sheikh Batalawi as a great scholar of Arabic, and view me and my friends as ignorant and, therefore, not to be trusted. They will be led to think that only the testimony of real maulawis is credible. In a public meeting in Lahore, I had already informed this poor man of the Divine revelation I had received:

اِنَّیْ مُھِیْنٌ مَنْ اَرَادَ اِھَانَتَکَ

I shall humiliate him who designs to humiliate you.

However, his prejudice was so great that this Divine voice did not reach his ears and he was intent on convincing people that I did not know a word of Arabic. However, he then fell victim to his own scheme in keeping with the Divine revelation that Allah would humiliate him who tried to humiliate me. Praise be to God! How He stands in support of His helpless servants! Yet, people do not fear Him!

Is it not a sign from God that the very person of whom it was said that he is ignorant and does not know a word of Arabic is now openly challenging all the so-called maulawis, who excommunicated him, to write a commentary on the Holy Quran in response to his own and receive a reward of 1,000 rupees, or to write one in response to Nurul-Haqq and receive 5,000 rupees, and yet not one of them has come forward? Is this your knowledge and scholarship on the basis of which you label me an apostate? Tell me, O Sheikh, whether or not the prophecy has been fulfilled. The whole world knows that it was for the express purpose of exposing the knowledge of the Sheikh and the authenticity of those who have written edicts of heresy against me that I wrote the books Karamatus-Sadiqin and Nurul-Haqq in Arabic, and I made an open challenge that anyone who could write a book that could compete with Karamatus-Sadiqin would receive a reward of 1,000 rupees, and that anyone who wrote a book that could compete with Nurul-Haqq would receive 5,000 rupees, but they failed to take up the challenge until the deadline I had set—the end of June 1894—had passed. The Sheikh’s silence proved not only that he is completely devoid of any knowledge of Arabic but also that he is a first-class liar and fabricator and a person without shame. Having clearly written in his published announcements regarding me that I was ignorant of Arabic, it was incumbent upon him to demonstrate his own knowledge in the face of my challenge; instead, he fell silent as if he did not even exist. Consider how specifically I invited him to the challenge and the ways in which I tried to rouse his sense of honour, but he would not even lift an eyebrow. It was with the sole purpose of settling the matter of the Sheikh’s knowledge of Arabic that I published an announcement along with my book Nurul-Haqq in which I challenged the Sheikh that if he could write and publish a book of a similar size that could be comparable to Nurul-Haqq in terms of its eloquence and verities and wisdom, he would be entitled to a prize of 3,000 rupees, not to mention that it would be an easy way for him to prove the falseness of my revelation and save him thousands of curses. On the other hand, if he failed to do so, he would not only be defeated but would be the person in whom the prophecy would be fulfilled. The Sheikh, however, did not care for any of these things and his sense of honour was not roused in the least. Why so? Because the contest was beyond his capability; hence, he was forced to accept his disgrace by refusing to take up the challenge. This establishes the truth of the revelation:

اِنَّیْ مُھِیْنٌ مَنْ اَرَادَ اِھَانَتَکَ

I shall humiliate him who designs to humiliate you.

He stood on pulpits on hundreds of occasions and before hundreds of people and said of me that I was an ignorant man with no knowledge of Arabic and that I was a liar and a dajjal [deceiver]. He went further and wrote hundreds of letters to this effect and had them published in magazines until he had instilled in the minds of his ignorant friends that this was indeed true. God, therefore, decided to break the pride of this arrogant person and to show him how Allah helps His servants. It was, thus, with God’s help and support and with the knowledge and understanding that He specifically bestowed on me, that these books were written. I had set the end of June 1894 as the deadline for him to accept the challenge with regard to Karamatus-Sadiqin and Nurul-Haqq, and this deadline has passed. I have now written this book, Sirrul-Khilafah, which is very concise and the lyrical part is very short, so that anyone familiar with Arabic can easily write something like it in seven days, and it would take another ten days to have it published. Considering the Sheikh’s state right now and the helplessness of his friends, I am willing to give him an extra ten days, which comes to 26 days. I print this book promising a prize of 27 rupees, one rupee for each day, to anyone who can write anything like it. I would also beseech the Sheikh and his so-called maulawis that if they have been unfortunate enough to have missed the prize of 1,000 rupees and 5,000 rupees, they should at least not let go of these 27 rupees. I have heard that the Sheikh is in some financial difficulties and that his so-called friends have not been of much help. Therefore, these 27 rupees should be for him like precious gems for him at such a time.1 I sincerely affirm that if, after the publication of Sirrul-Khilafah, the Sheikh publishes a book within the time stipulated, and the book proves to be of the same calibre as mine, then not only will I give him the 27 rupees, I will also publish a written confession that the Sheikh deserves to be called an Arabic scholar and to be given the title of maulawi, and that he should in future be called by this same title. This time, therefore, the Sheikh should not give up. This is a short book and not too challenging. If he wrote 40 pages a day, he could complete it within four to five days. If he doesn’t think himself capable of even this much, then let him seek the help of the 150 maulawis who thoughtlessly issued edicts declaring some Muslims to be apostates and worthy of eternal damnation, and arrogantly gave themselves the titles of maulawis. If each of them wrote 40 pages, the Sheikh could publish a book more voluminous than this one, comprising up to 6000 pages. However, if the Sheikh still fails to do so, it would be shameless of him to call himself a maulawi anymore. It would indeed be best for him to refrain from telling lies and making others do the same in future.

I wonder if the name Sheikh is sufficient for him which he had inherited from his forefathers, or would he rather be called munshi, but even that is debatable because it is essential for a munshi to be able to write Persian verse, and I am yet to see a composition of Persian verses penned by you. Regardless, even if we close our eyes to these facts and accept that you are a munshi—albeit one who has lost the ability inherent in such a title—there would not be much harm in this because the title of munshi has nothing to do with our faith. On the other hand, we can never accept that the title of maulawi is given to a fool who, even when presented with a prize of up to 5,000 rupees, could not be motivated to take up the challenge, nor was he moved by my curse upon the liars, nor when I permitted him to seek help from the whole world if he so desired. If such people are given the title of maulawi, would they have any talent other than to label Muslims as apostates? Obviously not. They read some hadiths and then give themselves the title of Sheikhul-Kul [the Sheikh of all Things]. We seek refuge with Allah from the tribulations of this age and its people and from the foolishness of the ignorant.

It should also be noted that every opponent who has any sense of self-worth will only go to a certain extent in the use of falsehood that has no basis at all. The Sheikh, on the other hand, did not partake of any of this natural human sense of shame; he instead employed all the resources at his disposal to harm me and left no stone unturned in this endeavour. First of all, he tried to rouse the masses by claiming that I was an apostate and a dajjal and that they should, therefore, avoid meeting me and try to torment me in every possible way, and that this would merit them Divine reward. Having failed in this, he tried to incite the British government by reporting all kinds of lies and fabrications about me, but this government is far-sighted and sagacious and does not act impetuously like the Sikh rulers who would be roused to fury at every trivial thing that reached their ears. This government uses its God-given intellect; hence it did not give any credence to the reports of a man whom they knew to be acting out of selfish motives. The government was also fully cognizant of my family’s goodwill towards its rule. It knew very well that, for the last fourteen years, in contrast to all these maulawis, I had been publishing articles to the effect that we are the subjects of this government and it is incumbent upon us, in keeping with the injunctions of Allah and the Messenger of Allah, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, to remain obedient to it; that it is haram [unlawful] to rebel under these circumstances, and that anyone who adopts the path of rebellion or hatches conspiracies or participates in such meetings or is privy to them, disobeys Allah and His Messenger. Whatever I have written about my being a true well-wisher of this government is true. The ignorant maulawis do not know of the conditions that are necessary for jihad. Killing and pillaging is not jihad, nor is jihad ever permissible against a government that grants us protection.

When a government protects the lives and honour and property of its citizens and grants them full religious freedom, Allah never warrants that anyone should go out and try to destroy such a government. This is not faith, it is infidelity; this is not virtue, it is transgression. May God have mercy on Muslims who do not understand this issue and are living hypocritical and dishonest lives under this government. I have read the Holy Quran carefully and nowhere have I found it teaching that one should respond to good with evil. It is true that this is a government of a people who are very wrong about their religious beliefs, and even in this day of enlightenment, they hold a man to be God and a poor mortal to be the Lord of the worlds. However, this makes them even more deserving of sympathy and of being shown guidance, for they have strayed too far from the right path. Being mindful of their benevolence, we should pray for them in the presence of God: ‘O Lord Almighty, guide them and open their hearts to pure Tauhid [the Oneness of God] and turn them towards the truth so that they may recognize your true and perfect Prophet (sas) and your Holy Book, and Islam may become their religion.’ True, the mischief of the Christian clergy has gone too far and they are raising a lot of noise, but their aggression is not of the sword; it is of the pen. Therefore, O Muslims, you, too, fight them with the pen, and do not transgress. God has clearly laid down His will in the Holy Quran that the pen shall be countered with the pen, the sword with the sword. Since we have never heard of Christian clergymen raising the sword for the propagation of their faith, if we tried to counter them with the sword, it would amount to abandoning the Quran; nay, it is outright misguidance and disobedience of Divine injunctions. The fact is that people who are devoid of spirituality want to fulfil their own selfish desires under the guise of Islam. May God grant them understanding. People of the Afghan temperament will disapprove of this teaching, but I only care for expressing the truth and not for appeasing anyone.

Another extremely hazardous belief that is sabotaging Islam spiritually is that the maulawis await a Mahdi who would drown the world in blood and start killing as soon as he made his appearance. They also attribute the same signs to their fictitious Messiah who, they say, will descend from heaven and kill all unbelievers and spare only those who accept Islam. One with such ideas cannot be a true benefactor of his people; in fact, it would be frightful to travel alone with such a person lest he tries to kill you thinking that you are an unbeliever, while he remains ignorant of his own unbelief. Remember, that to present such nonsensical beliefs as an integral part of Islam and the Holy Quran is to bring ridicule upon Islam and to give the opponents occasion to mock our religion. No logic can justify that a person should come and start killing people without having first conveyed his message to them, or that he should strive to destroy the very government under whose protection he lives. It seems as if the souls of the people who hold such beliefs have become completely corrupted and the qualities of human compassion have been strangled within them, or that God never gave them such qualities, to begin with. May God protect us from every mischief. No one knows what jealousy these words might provoke in their hearts and how vociferously they might declare me to be an apostate, but I care for none of this. Everyone’s case rests with God Almighty. In no verse of the Holy Quran do we find the exhortation to start killing without having first adequately conveyed the Message. Our Master and Prophet (sas) endured the persecution of the disbelievers for thirteen years. He was tormented in every possible way but he did not respond in kind. Many of his friends and family were killed but he did not at all fight back. He was crushed by sorrow but responded with nothing but patience. Finally, when the tyranny of the disbelievers crossed all limits and they wanted to destroy Islam by killing all Muslims, God Almighty saved His beloved Prophet from the hands of those wolves and delivered him safely to Madinah. In truth, that was the day when it was ordained in heaven that the tormentors would be punished.

تا دل مرد خُدا نامد بدرد
ہیچ قومے را خدا رسوا نکرد

God brings not humiliation upon a people,
So long as they remember him with anguish.

Alas, the disbelievers did not stop there but pursued the Holy Prophet and tried to kill him. They carried out many raids and expeditions and tried to hurt him in every way. This went on until, in the sight of God, they became worthy of being punished due to their innumerable sins. Had their mischief not reached such a level, the Holy Prophet (sas) would never have raised the sword, but those who had raised their swords and had been deemed by God to be audacious transgressors ended up being killed by the sword. This form of jihad waged by the Holy Prophet (sas) is not unknown to scholars. There are clear instructions in the Holy Quran that you should do good to those who do good to you, be grateful to those who shelter you, and not hurt those who do not hurt you. It is a pity that the maulawis of this age are ready to return good with evil, and are devoid of faith, spirituality and human compassion.

اللّٰھُمَّ أَصْلِحْ أُمَّة مُحَمّدٍ صَلَّی اللّٰہُ عَلَیْہِ وَ سَلَّمَ

[O Allah reform the Ummah of Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him]. Amin.

Sheikh Muhammad Husain Batalawi

His insistence on calling us infidels and the proof of our Islamic faith. A reward of 27 rupees for the Sheikh if he is able to write and publish a book that competes with Sirrul-Khilafah

God is my witness that I have not stepped out of Islam by so much as a cubit. As far as I know and believe, I stand firm on all the verities of the Holy Quran and Hadith. I feel sorry that Sheikh Muhammad Husain and our other opponents have not only declared me to be an infidel and a dajjal [deceiver] and one destined to abide forever in Hell, they have also abandoned the Quran and the Hadith. I have said time and again that I cannot follow their selfish desires and their mistaken beliefs; however, if they have anything from the Holy Quran or Hadith that I am supposedly against, I am ready to accept it at any time. I proved to them that the word تَوَفّی [tawaffi]—which is a common idiom used by the Holy Quran, the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, his Companions, and by Arabs even today—means ‘to cause someone to die’. It does not mean anything else. I have also shown them that the word tawaffi, as proven to have been used by the Holy Prophet (sas), points to the fact that Jesus has passed away. Open up Bukhari and reflect with a pure heart on the account wherein the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, says that, on the Day of Judgement, he will say the exact same words as are ascribed to Jesus, the righteous man, in the verse فَلَمَّا تَوَفَّیۡتَنِیۡ [fa lamma tawaffaitani—‘but since You did cause me to die’].2

Would it be fair to say that the true connotation of the words applied to Jesus but not to the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,3 and that the Holy Prophet (sas) did not partake in the true meaning of the word tawaffi that was in accord with God’s will, viz. ‘being physically raised to heaven’; and that the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, changed its meaning so that when it applied to him it had a different connotation, but when it applied to Jesus it had the meaning originally intended by God? If this were true, it would entail the manifest error that it is beyond the status of a Prophet to change the established meaning of a word in a way that can only be described as distortion. It would also nullify the similitude that the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, intended to portray by citing the verse فَلَمَّا تَوَفَّیۡتَنِیۡ4, for, the similarity would only stand if the true meanings of the word tawaffi applied equally to him and to Jesus. In the absence of such application, where would the similarity be? Could the Holy Prophet (sas) not have found another word instead of sharing one to which he was not even entitled? Can one who is buried in the earth and one who has been raised to heaven be equally described by a word that could mean either to die or to be raised to heaven alive? Can two opposites be the same? If the meaning of tawaffi mentioned in the verse فَلَمَّا تَوَفَّیۡتَنِیۡ was not to ‘cause to die’, then had Imam Bukhari lost his mind when he picked another verse from another place and cited it in support of this meaning in Sahih Bukhari? Not only that, but he also brought in the saying of Ibn Abbas (ra):

مُتَوَفِّیْکَ مُمِیْتُکَ

‘I will tawaffi you means “I will cause you to die.”’ If Bukhari did not mean to elaborate upon the allegorical meaning of the Holy Prophet’s (sas) words through the clear definition given by Ibn Abbas, then what was the purpose of bringing together the two verses and mentioning Ibn Abbas as well, and what was the need to have this discussion around the word tawaffi anyway? The fact is that here Imam Bukhari has expressed his own belief about the word tawaffi.

There are now three points in support of my claim. The first is the blessed saying of the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, that just as the righteous man ‘Isa had said فَلَمَّا تَوَفَّیۡتَنِیۡ, so would he say these words. The second is the fact that Ibn Abbas has defined the word tawaffi as ‘to cause to die’. The third is the testimony of Imam Bukhari which is evident from the manner in which he has discussed this verse.

Now, who do you think has abandoned the Hadith and the Quran? Is it me or my opponents? Have they been able to prove their meaning of the word tawaffi with sayings of the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, or of his Companions, as I have done? Regardless, if my opponents can prove some other meaning of tawaffi on the basis of a hadith of the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, a statement of one of his Companions, and the validation of an eminent Imam such as Bukhari, I would be willing to accept that meaning. It is truly cunning of them to first abandon the Hadith and the Quran and then to accuse our sect of having abandoned the Quran and the Hadith.

O maulawis who oppose me, may God have mercy on you, pay close attention and know that the only meaning of the word tawaffi in the verse under discussion that is established by the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, and his Companions is ‘to cause to die’. Anyone who abandons this meaning interprets the Holy Quran according to his own whim because this hadith does not allow any other meaning of the word tawaffi in this verse. For this reason, Shah Wali’ullah, in his Tafsir Fauz al-Kabir, which adheres only to the sayings of Holy Prophet (sas) and the Companions, has defined mutawaffika as mumituka [to cause to die]. Had he found any other meanings, he would surely have given them as well.

Our opponents should be ashamed of themselves for abandoning the unambiguous and authentic texts. Fear God, O heedless ones. Are you not going to die one day?

You should also not be jubilant over the word nuzul. The Holy Prophet (sas) has not specified the kind of nuzul referred to here, because this word has various connotations. For example, it is used to describe the nuzul [arrival] of a traveller at some place. The Holy Quran also uses nuzul in the spiritual context, such as the nuzul of iron and clothes and cattle. The biblical account of Elijah and John the Baptist, which is agreed upon by Jews and Christians alike, makes it very clear that dead Prophets return to the world in a spiritual sense and not a physical one. They never descend from the sky, but, with the permission of God, their spiritual qualities descend upon someone who has an affinity with them and who reveres them, and thus the ‘descent’ of such a person is considered to be their descent. Some saints have mentioned this kind of ‘descent’ in their mystical works. Therefore, in the eyes of God, this is a kind of nuzul, otherwise God’s word would stand falsified.

The Biblical story of Elijah is accepted among Jewish and Christian sects, and it would be foolish for us to say they all colluded in trying to interpolate these verses. In fact, the story has proven to be very detrimental for Christians. If Elijah’s descent were to be taken literally, the Jews would be proven right and it would become obvious that Jesus was not a true Prophet, as Elijah was supposed to have descended from heaven prior to his coming. This objection by the Jews was a great hurdle for Jesus in proving his prophethood. Had the story of Elijah been a fabrication, Jesus would surely have told the Jews that there is no truth to the claim that Elijah must return to the earth in his physical body before the appearance of Christ. Instead, he accepted the verses as authentic and declared that Elijah’s descent was supposed to be a spiritual one. It was on account of these interpretations that the Jews called him an apostate and unanimously declared him to be irreligious and a disbeliever because he had distorted the apparent meaning of categorical verses of the Torah. If Jesus had explained that the said passages in the scriptures had been distorted, while this would not have silenced the Jews, many would have believed him after witnessing his miracles. Seeing that he was helped by God and received Divine revelations and worked miracles, people would have accepted his claim. However, Jesus did not do so and he instead acknowledged the authenticity of the verses that promised the return of Elijah. This has caused the Christians no end of trouble as they have nothing to say to the Jews who taunt them that Jesus could be a Prophet only if all Divine scriptures were rejected. So far, Christians have not been able to prove that these verses were interpolated so as to get rid of this nuisance. Indeed, it is not possible for them to go against the words of Jesus, peace be upon him, after a passage of 1900 years. This is a very important point for our Muslim brothers to ponder. They should realize that if the apparent meanings they are emphasizing are true, then Jesus cannot be a Prophet in any way. He can only be the Prophet of God if the descent of Elijah is believed to be a spiritual phenomenon.

It is a pity that after the passage of 1890 years, these maulawis and faqihs [theologians] have taken up the same quarrel with me. Even a child can understand that the stance I have adopted is the same as that of Jesus, while the belief upheld by the mullahs is the one advocated by the Jews. Look at the misfortune of the maulawis that as soon as they adopted this belief, they started to resemble the Jews. However, all is not lost and there is still time, if they but understand!

It has now been established that there is no precedent of the use of the word nuzul for physical descent. No precedent of this kind was found in past scriptures, and the promise of the ‘descent’ of Elijah also turned out to be a spiritual descent and not a physical one. This proves that, from the time of Adam to this day, whenever the word nuzul has been used for a mortal with reference to his coming down from heaven, it never refers to physical descent. Anyone who thinks otherwise should present proof thereof. Since the word nuzul has never referred to physical descent, how can it be so applied today in contravention of Divine practice and the ancient use of the word?

وَلَنۡ تَجِدَ لِسُنَّۃِ اللّٰہِ تَبۡدِیۡلًا ﴿۶۳﴾5

If some fool still does not understand this clear and unequivocal statement, then he must at least understand that the word tawaffi, as it appears in the verse under discussion, has been clearly and unequivocally defined. It has been categorically established that the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, explained this word to mean ‘to cause to die’, as did Hazrat Ibn Abbas (ra), as well as Imam Bukhari who gave his practical testimony to this effect. As for the word nuzul, even the most bigoted person can do no more than say it is mutashabihat [susceptible to different interpretations]. However, only those whose hearts have been corrupted would shy away from the word that has been authentically defined and opt for mutashabihat. If there is faith in you, then hold on to the word that numbers amongst the muhkamat [categorical] and unequivocal instead of mutashabihat. Leave the interpretation of the mutashabihat to the wisdom of God Almighty so that you may be saved.

I have here explained the major point of contention between us and our opponents, and the long and short of it is that we hold on to that which is categorical and authentic and has been proven from the Quran, the Hadith, sayings of the Companions, precedents from past scriptures, the eternal practice of God, the saying of Imam Bukhari, Imam Malik, Ibn Qayyim, and Ibn Taymiyyah, and from the beliefs of other sects of Islam. Our opponents, on the other hand, only grasp the multi-faceted word nuzul which—according to the lexicons, the Holy Quran, and past scriptures—bears various connotations. Never did the Messenger of Allah, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, define the word nuzul as pertaining to the physical descent of Jesus the Messiah, peace be upon him. The fact that a precedent has been established to show that a Prophet can only descend in spiritual terms, that the Jews who were awaiting the physical descent of Elijah were proven wrong by the words of Jesus, and that we do not find any instance whereby physical descent has ever taken place at any time in the past; it can then be concluded that the descent of Jesus refers to a spiritual descent. If it had been the practice of God to cause people to physically return to the world, why would He put the Jews in such a quandary that to this day they believe that the true Messiah will only come after Elijah has descended from heaven? When God had clearly promised that Prophet Elijah would return to the world and that the Messiah would come after him, He should have fulfilled this promise in its literal sense by causing Elijah to come down physically from the sky so that the Jews—who, along with their jurists and scholars and narrators, had incorporated the physical descent of Elijah into their core beliefs—would have seen the literal fulfilment of this prophecy and have been in no doubt about the prophethood of the Messiah. Instead, they were placed in such a dilemma that while their scriptures told them in clear and unequivocal terms that Elijah would come back into the world and that the Messiah who appeared after him would be the true Messiah, this prophecy was not fulfilled according to their expectations and they were faced with great difficulties when the Messiah did appear. Ultimately, the prophecy was interpreted in such a far-fetched manner that the Jews had no choice but to declare Jesus to be false and an impostor who, for his own vested interests, had interpreted a clear prophecy of physical descent to mean spiritual descent. For this reason, millions of people became Hell-bound as infidels and apostates.

O Muslims, study this episode carefully because you have become one with the Jews in your beliefs. Know, that it is the nature of a believer to learn from the mistakes of others.

فَاعْتَبِرُوا یَا أُولِی الْأَبْصَارِ وَ اسْئَلُوا أَھْلَ الذِّکْرِ إِنْ کُنْتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُوْنَ

[Consider, O you who have insight, and ask the people who remember, if you do not know].

If you ask why you should believe that this narrative is true, the answer is that this has been an ongoing bone of contention between two religions, and to merely claim that their scriptures have been interpolated cannot take away from the consistency of this narrative. It could only have been rejected if the Holy Quran itself had denied it. However, since neither the Holy Quran nor Hadith refute this episode, we cannot possibly deny it.6 Even if we were to admit that those scriptures were not revealed by God and were purely the works of men, we could not do away with that which has been established by the unanimous testimony of two religions as historical truth, nor can we consider it to be dubious and conjectural. We do not deny the existence of Ramachandra and Krishna and Vikramaditya and Buddha just because we believe that the scriptures that speak of them were not revealed by God. The reason we do not deny them is because of historical consistency.

Some semi-mullahs are so stuck in the pit of ignorance that they use the word tahrif [interpolation] out of context, and ignore—and even try to erase—consistent historical evidence. It is a pity that there are those among the Muslims who are called maulawis and yet they refuse to accept historical verities and unduly bring in irrelevant points as proofs of interpolation. They do not understand that if the Jews had done the interpolation, it should have been opposed to the Christian doctrine, and if the Christians had done it then it should have been against the aspirations of the Jews. What we see is that the words contained in the Torah are very detrimental for the Christians as they lay down the return of Elijah as a precondition for the appearance of the Messiah. The Christians aiding the Jews in this interpolation would be like cutting off one’s own nose. The reason is that if the prophecy of the descent of Elijah was taken literally, it would be impossible to prove Jesus’ claim of prophethood, for how could he have appeared prior to Elijah’s physical descent from heaven? On the other hand, if they do not take it literally and define it as a spiritual descent, how then would they hold on to their prophecy of the physical return of the Messiah in the Latter Days? There is no doubt about the descent and we believe in it and we have seen its manifestation. However, only those who want to be called apes and swine will be willing to adopt the interpretation of those who were labelled as such by God. May God protect true believers from the interpretation that brings with it the curse that was the lot of the Jews in the past.

What more can I say on this subject and how can I bring guidance to those whom Allah has chosen not to be guided? How can I open the eyes of those whose eyes He does not open? How can I bring life to those whom He does not give life? O Lord and Master, bestow grace and mercy at this time and remove this division from between us, and reveal the truth and destroy falsehood, for all power and strength and mercy belong to You. Amin, amin, amin.

Let it also be clear that we do not deny the descent of angels. If someone can prove to us that angels descend upon the earth after vacating their places in heaven, we will be eager to listen to their arguments and accept them if they prove to be valid. As far as we know, the existence of angels is part of our faith. The descent of God to the firmament of the earth and the descent of angels are realities that we cannot comprehend. It is proven from the Book of Allah that angels appear on earth as new creations. Was the appearance of Gabriel in the form of Dihyah al-Kalbi a kind of new creation or was it something else? Is it also necessary to destroy the first creation and then to bring about a new creation? Would it not be possible that the first creation remains established in heaven while the new creation becomes manifest through the vast power of God? Is it beyond God Almighty’s power to manifest one being in two bodies? Certainly not!

اَلَمْ تَعْلَمْ اَنَّ اللّٰہَ عَلیٰ کُلِّ شَیْءٍ قَدِیْرٌ

[Do you not know that Allah has the power to do all that He wills?]

Sheikh Batalawi has, in his own estimation, pointed out some errors in my book Tabligh. I regret to say that in his prejudice, or in his ignorance, he has misconstrued some words and phrases and pointed them out as errors whereas they are in fact correct. If a meeting could be arranged for this purpose, I could explain to him the humiliation that one has to face by engaging in such trickery. Are these not the signs of doomsday? Such ignorant people calling themselves maulawis!

اِنَّا لِلّٰہِ وَاِنَّاۤ اِلَیۡہِ رٰجِعُوۡنَ

[‘Surely, to Allah we belong, and to Him shall we return’]7

If all the errors that he tried so diligently to point out were put together, they would barely make two lines, and most of them would be proofing errors. The rest are but a reflection of the Sheikh’s own lack of understanding and reveal that the Sheikh never paid any real attention to Arabic. It would have been better if he had kept silent and not exposed himself. I have been eagerly looking forward to seeing the Sheikh produce a book as eloquent as mine in prose and verse, receive the reward I have promised, and win my admission that he is indeed a true scholar of Arabic.

I have said time and again that I have written these books with the help of God. I do not call them Divine revelation or inspiration, but I must say that God’s special and supernatural support caused them to be written by my hand. I have announced many times that if the Sheikh—who I believe is in a state of disgrace and has been deprived of any knowledge of Arabic—could compete with my writings, he would be able to destroy all my claims. Why doesn’t he pay attention to this and what is preventing him from doing so? It is perhaps because he is bereft of the knowledge of Arabic and is languishing in disgrace and it is impossible for him to compete with me. This is a clear fulfilment of the revelation:

اِنَّیْ مُھِیْنٌ مَنْ اَرَادَ اِھَانَتَکَ

I shall humiliate him who designs to humiliate you.

Isn’t this the same Muhammad Husain who went about proclaiming that I was ignorant, that I didn’t know a word of Arabic, and that the eminent scholars who are with me are only munshis? God’s honour demanded that his own failings should be exposed and his arrogance should be shattered and he should taste the fruit of egotism and arrogance. What could be more disgraceful than to be shamed and humiliated at the hands of the very person regarding whom he had reiterated from pulpits that he does not know anything of Arabic and is completely ignorant. If this was not a sign, then Muhammad Husain should have sought the help of all his friends and written the answer to Nurul-Haqq and Karamatus-Sadiqin. He was promised great rewards and warned of a thousand curses but paid no heed to any of this. Such, then, is the result of opposing the truth.

فَاتَّقُوا اللّٰہَ یَا أُولِی الْأَبْصَارِ

[So take a lesson, O ye who have eyes!]

The Sheikh’s justification that he did not write a reply to Nurul-Haqq because the Christian clergy were also addressed in it is no more than a cunning excuse. It is but a ruse to avoid having to take up the challenge, but the wise will recognize this as a lame and shameful defence. I had already written that only the Christian clergy and the ungodly will fail to take up this challenge, but it would not be beyond the power of a true Muslim. Therefore, if the Sheikh had written something in response, the Christian clergy would have been even more humiliated and people would have said that Muslims were able to meet the challenge where the Christians had failed. In addition, he would have received 3000 rupees in reward, would have proven my revelation to be false, and would have gained honour and prestige among the people. Having now excused himself from taking up the challenge, it would not be honourable of him to call my people ‘munshi’ while he is himself unable to meet the conditions of being a maulawi. It is also misguided of people to continue to consider such people to be scholars of Arabic and to address them as maulawi.

As a gesture of goodwill, I hereby give a final invitation to the Sheikh to compete with Sirrul-Khilafah, having given up hope regarding any of the previous challenges. I offer you a period of 27 days and promise 27 rupees as a reward. If you like, I can hand the money over to you forthwith, failing which I would be considered a liar. I can send this money in advance if you publicly pledge to publish the refuting article within 27 days. If you are able to meet this challenge, you will not only get a reward of 27 rupees but you shall also receive my public admission that I was mistaken in having called you Sheikh instead of maulawi, that you are indeed a great scholar and man of letters, and that whatever meaning you give to the Hadith should be accepted.

Consider how much you can win from this. You will no longer need to bother people to raise money or have to resign from your current position, because when you have successfully competed against me, you will have falsified my revelations and I would be left with nothing. I swear by God Almighty that if you have any knowledge of Arabic at all, you will not turn away from this challenge. You will receive one rupee for every error that you point out in my book that exceeds the errors in yours. The deadline for this submission is 25th July. If you do not publish and announce this submission by 25th July, you will be deemed to have run away from the challenge.

It is now incumbent upon Muslims to counter the so-called maulawis who have made their articles and their sermons a source of livelihood. Wherever such maulawis come to preach, they should be asked if they are truly maulawis or only call themselves so for selfish motives. Ask them if they have written a reply to Nurul-Haqq or to Karamatus-Sadiqin or published a book to compete with Sirrul-Khilafah? Remember, these people are not maulawis. Muslims must always keep books such as Nurul-Haqq at hand and counter Christian clergymen and their like-minded maulawis with these books and expose them and save Islam from their deception. Also bear in mind that it is these very people who, portraying themselves as maulawis, have falsely labelled hundreds of Muslims and infidels and created a great fitnah [discord] in Islam.

والسَّلامُ علیٰ من التَّبع الھُدٰی

[And peace be upon him who followsa the guidance.]

Written by
Ghulam Ahmad, may Allah forgive him